CC 11: Thunderplump ~ Seven!

With so much help, it was a work of mere minutes to frisbee the bodies of monsters off into the distance and reverently stack their own people in close proximity to each other. As soon as it was confirmed that no one else was about to die, Joe hurried to the side of the bodies and activated his most powerful deity-granted spell: Mass Resurrection Aura.

Immediately he felt weakened, nearly fainting, as his access to mana was removed for the next twenty-four hours. On the positive side, Joe knew that for the next few seconds he was visually striking. His body was wrapped in a thick layer of shadow, with tendrils extending out from him and sinking into all bodies within range. As soon as the darkness engulfed them, the corpses began to move, breathing steadily and sitting up in confusion. Scores of portals opened as humans stepped out of their respawn rooms; each person having a look of relief on their faces that they weren’t going to be losing a handful of days just because they had been in the area.

As the darkness faded from Joe, his face sagged in utter exhaustion. Tiredly ensuring he hadn't missed anyone, he began carefully walking back to the ziggurat, with the Expert-ranked ritual glowing in his hands.

The Ritualist knew he’d have to wait a full day until he could fully examine the effects with his magical senses, but he could already feel them. The intense pressure of the magic in the air had always been, to his magical senses, the same as someone rubbing his entire body with sandpaper. It was an abrasive, constant sensation, and coupled with the massive increase in gravity that a large world generated. But now? Now the air felt like… nothing. Air back on Earth, perhaps?

In other words, the previously stifling sensation was now completely unnoticeable.

With a sidelong glance, Joe eyed the plethora of notifications awaiting his attention. “Eh… might as well do this so that I get all my messages at once.”

The Ritualist started wading through a crowd of messengers that had gathered as he finished his ritual and resurrected the fallen. Intent on reaching the ziggurat and being done with this project once and for all. None of the Messengers enjoyed being ignored, so all of them began shouting in an attempt to get his attention. The cacophony blended it together into a single, unified message: the council was demanding an explanation for his actions.

It was easy enough to ignore them for the moment, since he knew that placing the ritual and letting it unfurl over the Town would answer most of the questions—not to mention gaining him quite a bit of understanding and accolades. Stepping up to the obsidian pillar, Joe reached out and brushed a finger on the side.

Three rituals have been selected. Would you like to add another at this time? Inserted rituals can be adjusted, added, or removed once per 48 hours. Yes / No.

“Yup, that's why I'm here.” Joe cheerfully waited as a slot extended from the monument, which was perfectly shaped and sized for the ritual tile in his hand. That caught his interest, as the previous tiles had been shaped slightly differently. “Huh. I wonder if that's a function of the monument. Did I somehow subconsciously request that size? Or did it just know that… no, it had to be a function of it.”

Joe rubbed at his forehead, blinking his eyes rapidly. He tended to ramble when he was exhausted, and he only ever felt this drained when one of his resource pools was completely empty. Loss of Stamina made his body feel tired, and an empty mana pool made him want to spend the rest of the day in bed. Pushing thoughts of sleep to the side, he placed the tile and allowed it to be sucked into the monument.

There were some changes happening, he could tell, but soon the flat, glossy side of the structure was replaced with an enhanced image of the ritual: swirling fractals in perpetual motion. The pattern was soothing, almost hypnotizing.

Ritual selection 1 summary: Active daylight, night-time light adjustment.

Ritual selection 2 summary: Bodily fluid collection.

Ritual selection 3 summary: Temporary housing solution.

New! Ritual selection 4 summary: Energetic Stability boosted. Range increased by 50%. Fragments of intent are actively being stripped from the ambient energetic flows. Calculating… spells and skills down to the [Novice] rank can be used within the bounds of this effect. All bonus stability will be added as a percentage increase to the success of skills and spells.

Zone notification! The Town of Novusheim has been declared a ‘Prosperous Town’! Within the bounds of their settlement, all abilities down to the Novice level have been stabilized! Whether it turns into a capital of warfare, or a Sage-filled university, it is indisputable that their ability to grow will outstrip all others while this bonus is active!

As a reward for being the first settlement on the world to achieve this state, for one full day any current or new residents of the Town may choose any skill or spell to automatically learn at the Novice level!

You have activated a new ritual at the Expert level for the first time! +800 Class experience, plus 1600 bonus Reductionist experience!

Your skills have impacted a massive number of people, as well as creating a semi-permanent effect in a large area. Skill experience doubled for all relevant skill usage.

Skill increases:

Magical Matrices (Journeyman 0 → II)

Ritual Lore (Student IX → Journeyman 0). Congratulations! By reaching the Journeyman rank in Ritual Lore, you will find that intuitive leaps for the creation or altering of rituals are easier to attain!

Smithing Lore (Student VII → Student VIII)

Calculus and Number Theory (Student V → Student VI)

Mass Resurrection Aura (Apprentice VI → Apprentice VII)

Joe had been using his Knowledge Spell as much as possible, but it was kind of like taking your vitamins. If you keep up a good schedule, excellent. But as soon as you miss one because of life getting in the way, it becomes hard to remember to do so as often. Yet, even with using that spell, he’d never seen so many Lore skills increase at the same time; certainly not naturally.

He took a few moments to study the other notifications, and tried to think about how they would impact the Town in the short-term. “Okay, anyone who’s been on the fence about defecting and joining us is probably going to jump ship right away. So we should prepare for a massive surge of population. Next, we need to put a full-time guard rotation on this monument. As for that reward… I don't see a list popping up. That means a free skill or spell, no limitations, huh? Still, whatever I grab isn’t likely to be very useful at the Novice rank.”

Joe waited for a moment just in case the system decided to prove him wrong, but nodded in understanding when it did not. “I'm sure a full skill list would be balance breaking, especially if there was some way to determine which of them were at a higher tier of rarity. So I'm guessing… we have to specifically ask for a skill, or ask to be able to do something and let the system interpret it however it wants. Therefore, if we know the name, I bet we can get a better, more exact one. I should start asking around.”

Quickly assigning a few Legionnaires to guard the area until he could get a more permanent set to take the job, Joe started walking toward the Town Hall—much to the relief of the messengers still waving for his attention. “This is one of those times when it’d be a good idea to use my connections to ask a Grandmaster. Whew, asking advice without being in a dire situation? Have I been possessed by an ancient sage?”

He would’ve used Query to ask Tatum directly—as having his deity give him a proper answer would be even more effective—but he didn't mind having a few opinions. Someone opened the door for him, and Joe reflexively thanked them while meeting the glare of the receptionist he had wanted fired. “You’re still here?”

“I’ll outlast you by decades.” The receptionist grumbled with a deep scoff. “Enjoyt your chewing out session.”

“It’s just a formality.” Joe walked into the chamber with his head held high. An hour or so later, he stumbled out, shaking his head and blinking. “Well, that was a roller coaster of emotions. I'm still not sure if they were ecstatic or furious. Happy-angry? Hangry? No, that's if they're hungry and angry. Hmm. I need to make up a new word for this, but… sleepy time first.”

Hurrying over to his bubble, Joe flung himself on the pile of treated furs that he was using as a bed, burrowing into them and falling asleep almost at the same moment. When he woke up, he still had no access to mana, but the countdown was much closer to finishing. Languidly stretching, the Ritualist unhurriedly got up, looked at his filthy clothes in disgust, and resigned himself to having some negative Charisma modifiers until his Neutrality Aura came back online.

Not sure what to do with himself—lack of mana was a major inhibitor—Joe decided that perhaps he should take the time to work on either physical skills, or his control of Ritual Orbs. His original plan to ask for assistance in picking a Novice skill had been derailed by the intense meeting, but he had plenty of time before he had to choose.

There was an inherent knowledge that came along with system messages, and when it had stated they had one full day to choose, that meant nearly two weeks of standard time. A full Jotunheim day. No rush, in other words, but still a short enough time that there was a large incentive for people to defect and join their cause.

As he was walking over to an area that had been earmarked for training, Joe noticed large clusters of Dwarves and somewhat familiar people talking with each other in low voices. Not wanting to snoop, but also wondering what was going on, he walked slightly closer so that they were in earshot.

“But so many of them?”

“-gotta know that vetting them is going to be a nightmare, right?”

“I think it's a good thing. We need them, and they have to sign on in order to be citizens, right? Contract magic is pretty powerful.”

Even without further context, Joe understood that the flood of arrivals must have started already. He grit his teeth as he imagined the morale modifier in the Town falling like a rock, but hoped that the new effect from the Ritual of Cleansing would more than offset that. Not having much else to do, and still wanting to feel somewhat magical, he called up his stat sheet to see what had changed in the last… days? Hundreds of hours, at least. “Jotunheim time is the worst time.”

Name: Joe ‘Tatum’s Chosen Legend' Class: Reductionist

Profession I: Arcanologist (Max)

Profession II: Ritualistic Alchemist (5/20)

Profession III: Grandmaster’s Apprentice (15/25)

Profession IV: None

Character Level: 27 Exp: 392,972 Exp to next level: 13,028

Rituarchitect Level: 12 Exp: 76,950 Exp to next level: 1,050

Reductionist Level: 8 Exp: 39,391 Exp to next level: 5,609

Hit Points: 2,648/2,648

Mana: 0/8,726

Mana regen: 0/sec

Stamina: 2,008/2,008

Stamina regen: 6.73/sec

Characteristic: Raw score

Strength (bound): 188

Dexterity: 189

Constitution (bound): 188

Light Intelligence (Bound): 202

Wisdom: 185

Dark Charisma: 151

Perception: 189

Luck: 123

Karmic Luck: 25

Upon seeing the changes, it took Joe a few minutes to understand why his Constitution had continued to increase, when almost nothing else had. Then he snapped his fingers, a goofy grin on his face. “Artisan Body! Totally forgot that it was going in the background, I love passives! Let's see, it's at Apprentice five right now. Nice. It must gain extra experience from increasing high-threshold Characteristics. It’d take me how long to train Constitution…? Almost forty hours of continuous effort for a single point? Uh…”

Recognizing that training his Characteristics was going to be a nightmare of a time investment, and he could increase his Combat Ritual Orbs skill anywhere, the Ritualist shifted directions and started strolling toward the ladders leading to the top of the walls.

After a short climb, he walked along the extended, temporary bridges, until he finally arrived at the outermost camp within the walls. Hundreds upon hundreds of people were milling around down there, talking to each other and trying to get their bearings. Joe plopped down on the edge and watched them for a while; amazed that so many people would show up for the promise of such a seemingly low-end reward.

“Either they know something I don't, or they would’ve taken absolutely anything offered as soon as the system told them about this. Are their living conditions just that bad with the Elves?” Pondering that thought for a few moments, the Ritualist decided that whatever reasons they had for coming here, their past didn't matter anymore. Now they were here, and them becoming members of the Town would be a mutually beneficial situation for everyone involved.

As the sky darkened further, he let out a sigh of contentment. It had been a great day, filled with amazing—a notification he hadn’t seen in a long time appeared.

Luck is two thresholds below Intelligence! 1% chance to make a terrible decision has come into effect!

“Terrible decision? What terrible de… Abyss! I forgot to meet Daniella at sunset!” Joe scrambled to get up, but slipped on the icy surface of the wall and fell off. He let out a scream of frustration as the ground rushed up at him.